Ellie & Alex

Perched on its promontory among vineyards, lavender and olive trees, Domaine du Clos d'Hullias is a 17th-century Provençal hamlet overlooking the valley, with Mont Ventoux on the horizon. In Saint-Christol-de-Rodières, in the Gard, just a few kilometres from the Ardèche Gorges nature reserve and 45 minutes from Avignon, it is one of those venues that couples travelling from abroad — many of them from the UK and Ireland — fall for at first sight. This is where Ellie and Alex said yes, on a bright midsummer day.

Getting ready

In the hamlet's stone houses, each side had its own quarters. In Ellie's, lilac bridesmaids' dresses hung on personalised hangers, laughter echoed in flowery dressing gowns, and a card read aloud brought the first tears of the day — quickly soothed by a hug in the golden light. Make-up, copper curls, and then the flower crown, placed as if it had always belonged there.

In Alex's, the mood was quieter: a white shirt and camel braces in the chiaroscuro of old stone, brown shoes laced over socks that refused to take themselves seriously, and the rings waiting in a carved wooden box decorated with a tree of life, on a bed of dried lavender.

The ceremony beneath the olive trees

It was outdoors, under a flower-decked arch surrounded by olive trees and facing the rolling hills, that Ellie walked down the aisle on her father's arm. An open-air ceremony, vows exchanged through laughter — and through Alex's tears, which he never tried to hold back as he held the hand of his flower-crowned bride. The rings were exchanged in that clear summer light of the Gard, while the guests' polaroids were already drying on a line strung between two pines.

Why this venue

Clos d'Hullias is one of those estates that feel designed for a wedding: four spaces that follow the arc of the day, from the lavender terraces to the vaulted cellar, two panoramic pools, and an entire privatised hamlet where family and friends stay on site. As an English-speaking wedding photographer based 45 minutes away in the Ardèche, it is a venue I know well and always return to with pleasure — if you are planning your destination wedding at Clos d'Hullias, I would love to hear your plans.